ROBERT DEWITT: It's never cool to compromise your principles

By Robert DeWitt

Published: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at 11:46 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA | People are more afraid of not being cool than they are of the fires of hell. That's probably because most of them don't believe in the fires of hell. But they know that the hellish consequences of slipping out of the good graces of the high priests who worship the god Cool.

People are so fearful that they abandon centuries old social traditions and deep religious convictions within moments of discovering they're not cool (for those of you who noticed the difference in punctuation, the false deity is a proper noun, while the state of being in humanity is a common noun). And most people are entirely paranoid about it because Cool changes overnight.

To cite an ancient example, when I was in the seventh grade, we were required to dress out for physical education, and that meant wearing white socks. Rather than bringing white socks to school and changing into them, why not just wear white socks to begin with? It just seemed logical to me.

I found out that logic and Cool had nothing to do with each other. I was informed that I was a “redneck” because I wore white socks and the taunts rained down on me. A few years later, my mother bought me some red pants and red socks to go with them. Both turned pink after a couple of washings, yet I caught no grief for wearing that monstrous outfit. But white socks were unforgivable.

I gave up being logical after a couple of tries, but that didn't matter. Even though I had gone back to wearing colored socks, the fact that I had previously worn white socks continued to be held against me. That kind of institutional memory of the trivial is why people fear offending Cool's high priests. They are entirely unforgiving. And remember, this was just a relatively small breach of Cool commandments; it could have been much worse.

God on the other hand, forgives everything. So if Cool and religion conflict, people go with Cool because God will forgive them, but the high priests of Cool won't.

Another difference is that God is eternal and unchanging. Cool is eternally changing. By the time we were juniors, the high priests of Cool who excommunicated me for the white socks heresy were, themselves, wearing white socks with their Adidas running shoes. And no one said anything or pointed out the inconsistency, because it was Cool.

Cool worship, like most bad things in our culture (and admittedly, a couple of good things), is a product of the 1960s generation. They see themselves as open-minded rebels. But they are actually the most rigid enforcers of orthodoxy since the Inquisition — only the orthodoxy is the ever transient edicts of Cool.

The Cool winds have blown homosexuality and gay marriage into favor. Unfortunately, the social changes introduced by Cool don't seem to be as transient as fashion. Even when we discover that they have negative consequences, they seem permanently entrenched in society.

The generation that destigmatized drug use, unmarried cohabitation, premarital sex, abortion on demand and skyrocketing out-of-wedlock birthrates is about to make homosexuality mainstream. Like columnist Cal Thomas said, do you really expect a country that didn't have the moral backbone to reject any of the above to do anything less?

For goodness' sake, all you have to do is say rejecting gay marriage doesn't sound fair and isn't cool. Just say the magic word and the opposition melts away like the French infantry in 1940. Forgotten by popular history, Charles de Gaulle's tanks actually scored a victory against the Germans during the historic World War II collapse. France just didn't have enough resolute, skilled de Gaulles to stem the tide.

For Christians, homosexuality is what it has always been — a sin, nothing more and nothing less. People who practice homosexuality are no different from any other sinner, and that means all of us, in the eyes of God. Everybody is guilty of sexual immorality, regardless of whether they act on it. But understanding that it's not an unforgivable act is not the same thing as saying it's not a sin.

Anybody who is going to stick to his or her guns on this issue had better have de Gaulle's backbone and tenacity. They'd better be prepared to make a stand while everyone around them is in full retreat, because the Nazis are coming. In this case, their Gestapo are the high priests of Cool. Hold to your beliefs and you won't be cool. You'll be a bigot. If your church holds the line, it'll probably lose its tax exempt status eventually.

If I had to guess, I'd say that society will probably pay a price for caving to Cool. Previous changes brought impoverished mothers trying to raise children without a man's support, fatherless children who grow up wild and undisciplined, shiftless men made purposeless without a family to defend and care for, lives squandered in addiction and a callousness toward human life that continues to manifest itself in crime and murder.

But we'll bow down to Cool and give our approval to homosexuality and gay marriage because we're scared of being ostracized. We don't want to fall out of favor with the high priests of Cool. And then we'll whine about the consequences when we know what they are. It's what we do.

Robert DeWitt is senior writer for The Tuscaloosa News. Readers can email him at robert.

<p>TUSCALOOSA | People are more afraid of not being cool than they are of the fires of hell. That's probably because most of them don't believe in the fires of hell. But they know that the hellish consequences of slipping out of the good graces of the high priests who worship the god Cool.</p><p>People are so fearful that they abandon centuries old social traditions and deep religious convictions within moments of discovering they're not cool (for those of you who noticed the difference in punctuation, the false deity is a proper noun, while the state of being in humanity is a common noun). And most people are entirely paranoid about it because Cool changes overnight.</p><p>To cite an ancient example, when I was in the seventh grade, we were required to dress out for physical education, and that meant wearing white socks. Rather than bringing white socks to school and changing into them, why not just wear white socks to begin with? It just seemed logical to me.</p><p>I found out that logic and Cool had nothing to do with each other. I was informed that I was a “redneck” because I wore white socks and the taunts rained down on me. A few years later, my mother bought me some red pants and red socks to go with them. Both turned pink after a couple of washings, yet I caught no grief for wearing that monstrous outfit. But white socks were unforgivable.</p><p>I gave up being logical after a couple of tries, but that didn't matter. Even though I had gone back to wearing colored socks, the fact that I had previously worn white socks continued to be held against me. That kind of institutional memory of the trivial is why people fear offending Cool's high priests. They are entirely unforgiving. And remember, this was just a relatively small breach of Cool commandments; it could have been much worse.</p><p>God on the other hand, forgives everything. So if Cool and religion conflict, people go with Cool because God will forgive them, but the high priests of Cool won't.</p><p>Another difference is that God is eternal and unchanging. Cool is eternally changing. By the time we were juniors, the high priests of Cool who excommunicated me for the white socks heresy were, themselves, wearing white socks with their Adidas running shoes. And no one said anything or pointed out the inconsistency, because it was Cool.</p><p>Cool worship, like most bad things in our culture (and admittedly, a couple of good things), is a product of the 1960s generation. They see themselves as open-minded rebels. But they are actually the most rigid enforcers of orthodoxy since the Inquisition — only the orthodoxy is the ever transient edicts of Cool.</p><p>The Cool winds have blown homosexuality and gay marriage into favor. Unfortunately, the social changes introduced by Cool don't seem to be as transient as fashion. Even when we discover that they have negative consequences, they seem permanently entrenched in society.</p><p>The generation that destigmatized drug use, unmarried cohabitation, premarital sex, abortion on demand and skyrocketing out-of-wedlock birthrates is about to make homosexuality mainstream. Like columnist Cal Thomas said, do you really expect a country that didn't have the moral backbone to reject any of the above to do anything less?</p><p>For goodness' sake, all you have to do is say rejecting gay marriage doesn't sound fair and isn't cool. Just say the magic word and the opposition melts away like the French infantry in 1940. Forgotten by popular history, Charles de Gaulle's tanks actually scored a victory against the Germans during the historic World War II collapse. France just didn't have enough resolute, skilled de Gaulles to stem the tide.</p><p>For Christians, homosexuality is what it has always been — a sin, nothing more and nothing less. People who practice homosexuality are no different from any other sinner, and that means all of us, in the eyes of God. Everybody is guilty of sexual immorality, regardless of whether they act on it. But understanding that it's not an unforgivable act is not the same thing as saying it's not a sin.</p><p>Anybody who is going to stick to his or her guns on this issue had better have de Gaulle's backbone and tenacity. They'd better be prepared to make a stand while everyone around them is in full retreat, because the Nazis are coming. In this case, their Gestapo are the high priests of Cool. Hold to your beliefs and you won't be cool. You'll be a bigot. If your church holds the line, it'll probably lose its tax exempt status eventually.</p><p>If I had to guess, I'd say that society will probably pay a price for caving to Cool. Previous changes brought impoverished mothers trying to raise children without a man's support, fatherless children who grow up wild and undisciplined, shiftless men made purposeless without a family to defend and care for, lives squandered in addiction and a callousness toward human life that continues to manifest itself in crime and murder.</p><p>But we'll bow down to Cool and give our approval to homosexuality and gay marriage because we're scared of being ostracized. We don't want to fall out of favor with the high priests of Cool. And then we'll whine about the consequences when we know what they are. It's what we do.</p><p>Robert DeWitt is senior writer for The Tuscaloosa News. Readers can email him at robert.</p><p>dewitt@tuscaloosanews.com.</p>